The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Category: Oddities

Who’d’a thunk it?

  • Pixel XL Camera vs. Barred Owl

    A pair of barred owls have been doing call-response “Who cooks for you” chants during the late afternoon, we finally spotted one, and I have a Pixel XL in my pocket:

    Barred owl - overview
    Barred owl – overview

    That’s with the camera zoomed all the way, so it’s blowing up the raw pixels by a factor of four. Cropping out the middle and resizing by 300% shows the result doesn’t have much detail:

    Barred owl - zoomed 3x cropped
    Barred owl – zoomed 3x cropped

    We snagged the binoculars on the way out the door, so we got a better look than you do. The camera you have is much better than the camera you don’t, but big glass always wins over tiny optics!

  • Mouse Fatality

    It seems the rodents around here have lost their fear of enclosed spaces:

    Drowned mouse
    Drowned mouse

    I cannot be bothered to conjure a mesh lid for the bowl, though.

  • Mis-Punched Scope Probe Hook

    Back in the day, HP scope probes had a rugged music-wire hook on the tip:

    HP scope probe tip
    HP scope probe tip

    These days, scope probe tips use ordinary sheet steel punched into a hook shape:

    Siglent scope probe - good tip
    Siglent scope probe – good tip

    By sheer bad luck, the first probe out of the bag had a mis-punched end with no griptivity:

    Siglent scope probe - mis-cut tip
    Siglent scope probe – mis-cut tip

    Dunno what happened, but it was definitely sheared off in the factory.

    After I finally recognized the problem, I shaped a crude hook with a safe-edge needle file and continued the mission:

    Siglent scope probe - filed tip
    Siglent scope probe – filed tip

    A quick note to Siglent put a replacement probe tip in the mail, so it’s all good.

  • Magnetic Field Visualization

    Thinking about springs to apply downforce on plotting pen holders suggested magnets, so I extricated some neodymium bars from my collection of power toothbrush heads:

    Magnets - single
    Magnets – single

    A snippet of magnetic field visualization film shows a dipole pattern:

    Magnets - single - field visualization
    Magnets – single – field visualization

    Snapping two of them together in line:

    Magnets - in line
    Magnets – in line

    … produces a quadrupole:

    Magnets - in line - field visualization
    Magnets – in line – field visualization

    Now, if only I had some magnetic monopoles, this whole thing would be easier!

  • Fresh … Foul?

    This one took us by surprise:

    Fresh Foul Meat
    Fresh Foul Meat

    “As Advertised”, indeed, although the flyer got it right.

    We mentioned it at the Meat Department and discovered they don’t print the signs, so Mary reported it to The Front Office.

    It’s not as if I’ve never run afoul of a heterograph or perpetrated the occasional typo …

  • Brother BAS-311 Control Head Salvage

    A control head from an ancient Brother BAS-311 sewing machine emerged from a recent Squidwrench clearing-out session:

    Brother BAS-311 Control Head
    Brother BAS-311 Control Head

    The sturdy metal enclosure ought to be good for something, I thought, so I rescued it from the trash.

    One of the ten button-head screws galled in place and resisted a few days of penetrating oil, so I drilled it out:

    Drilled-out button screw head
    Drilled-out button screw head

    The PCB has no ICs! It simply routes all the LED and button pins through the pillar into the sewing machine controller:

    Brother BAS-311 Control Head - interior
    Brother BAS-311 Control Head – interior

    The ribbon cable alternates the usual flat strip with sections of split conductors:

    Segmented ribbon cable
    Segmented ribbon cable

    The split segments let it roll up into the pillar, with enough flexibility to allow rotating the head. I’ve seen segmented twisted-pair ribbon cable, but never just flat conductors.

    Maybe the control head can become Art in its next life?

  • Hazards of Outdoor Wiring

    Spotted behind a small strip mall during one of our walks:

     

    Rotted power cable
    Rotted power cable

    Perhaps the cable wasn’t rated for outdoor use?

    The earth ground conductor isn’t insulated and the nonconductive filler strands look scary, but neither should kill you outright.

    As far as I can tell, the insulation around the individual conductors remains intact, but it’s surely brittle and ready to fall off at the slightest touch.

    The breaker box and cable are out of reach and, I suppose, out of mind.